1996 Sony FXI 90 Audio Cassette

I thought this was an attractive looking tape for its era. This is the Sony FXI, from 1996 – a normal bias Type I cassette which, despite its rather eyecatching appearance, fell very firmly into the cheap and cheerful category.

1983 Memorex HBII 60 High Bias Audio Cassette

I must say I got a serious buzz of excitement when I finally unearthed this. I knew I had at least one old 1983 Memorex HBII (High Bias II) audio cassette kicking around somewhere, but my huge hoard of old possessions is in such disarray that searches have long since fallen into needle-in-haystack territory.

The Type IV Metal Audio Cassette

The metal-formulated audio cassette hit the scene near the end of the 1970s, as the answer to a number of problems with previous tape formulations. The standard ferric-oxide (Type I) tape had typically rendered poor high frequency definition, with pervasive noise, meaning a woolly sound without much presence or zing… except where you didn’t want it – in the hiss.